There's a game a friend and I often return to in idle moments. Perhaps not a game as much as a saddo's lament. It basically involves reminiscing about how good the high street used to be for menswear back in the day; that day being some time in the mid to late 1980s. Oh yes, we know how to have fun where I'm from. As it's largely thanks to one man - George Davis - that it was so good, our nostalgia-fest invariably tends to focus on what we call Next the Lowercase Years (in reference to the chain's cream-on-khaki logo of the time), though it's really when talking about the late Jigsaw Menswear that we're at our most mournful, perhaps because its demise is so much more recent.

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Ah, Jigsaw Menswear! To think of all those chunky rollneck jumpers, the slim-fit moleskin mod trousers, the pyjama-stripe shirting! Forgive me, but it still beats me why such a brilliant shop was allowed to morph into the execrable Uth chain (remember that?) before being killed off completely. Whatever the reason, it's my belief that the high street hasn't been the same since for men who care about style but don't want to be too scarily fashion-forward. Until now and the introduction of
Toast menswear
, that is.

I have been inordinately excited about this launch since getting wind of it back in the summer, and confess that in the past I have as good as petitioned the poor shop assistants in more than one branch to persuade their bosses to do a men's line. I am pleased to report that it doesn't disappoint. It has the same slightly artsy, very British vibe with which female shoppers will be accustomed, the same focus on natural fibres, the same muted palette with the odd burst of vibrant colour. My favourites? Well, where to start? I am particularly taken with a military double-breasted coat, a bright-orange cotton-twill smock-style anorak, a chalk-stripe flannel waistcoat with lapels, a button-shoulder grey-marl guernsey. Oh, and an inky-blue lawn-wool shawl/scarf… The list just goes on and on, really. Admittedly, they're not the cheapest clothes on the high street, but they will last for years and years. Which is more than can be said for certain other menswear chains I could mention.